News on the Spider-Man Spin-Offs

David Konow, 23rd January 2014

Right now, a number of genre stories are setting up spin-offs that will exist within a story’s universe, so to speak, much like the Iron Man films continued in and out of The Avengers. The latest superhero series to attempt this is Spider-Man, and movies featuring the Sinister Six and Venom are currently in the works.

A Venom film has been planned for a long time, and the fans have wanted to see one of Spider-Man’s greatest enemies in a movie for aeons. Venom didn’t turn out well in Spider-Man 3 because Sam Raimi never wanted to have him in any of the films, which is why he was practically an afterthought in Spidey 3. For the Sinister Six, Drew Goddard, director of Cabin in the Woods, is at the helm, and Star Trek screenwriter Alex Kurtzman will direct the Venom movie.

Orci told Collider and IGN that they’re all working on each other projects and helping each other. One of the archetypes they’re looking at is the TV show The Shield, which deftly handled an anti-hero lead, Vic Mackey.

So doing villain spin-off movies could be interesting, but we’re also wondering how they could pull off a strictly villain movie. A good villain needs a strong hero to fight, and vice versa, they can’t exist just by themselves, which is something producer Roberto Orci acknowledges.

“Audiences have seen everything,” he said. “They’ve seen all the good guys who never do anything wrong. Is there a story in seeing the other side? That’s the challenge, and that’s the fun. I’m not sure how we’re going to do that yet.”